


My Greatest Nightmare

by megsblackfire



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Phobias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 12:59:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8144900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megsblackfire/pseuds/megsblackfire
Summary: Hanzo woke to find the space next to him slowly growing colder. He didn't expect to find Jesse up and shaking like a leaf. He did expect a fight and a refusal to confide in him. His cowboy was stubborn, but Hanzo was patient. One way or another, he was going to find out what had scared Jesse enough to get him out of bed in the middle of the night.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely inspired by this comic strip by gunslaughter over on tumblr https://gunnslaughter.tumblr.com/post/150446880556/dont-fucking-kid-yourself-im-just-drawing-back

Hanzo woke to the space beside him on the bed slowly growing cold. He blinked slowly, sitting up as the last dregs of sleepiness fell off of him. Jesse was missing, but he hadn’t been missing for long. A few minutes, no more.

Hanzo yawned and got to his feet, slipping his metal toes into his slippers. As much as it pained him to admit, sliding across the floor was not fun when done unintentionally. He padded out of the bedroom of the safehouse he and Jesse were staying in, heading for the veranda. Jesse liked to have his smokes out here where it wouldn’t bother Hanzo’s lungs. Nearly drowning in the middle of a mission did lovely things to a man’s lungs and cigarillo smoke didn’t help.

He spotted Jesse through the glass door leading out to the veranda and blinked. He was shaking, hunched over the railing with his head lowered against his chest. He was holding his mechanical arm tightly in his flesh hand, tensing so much that Hanzo could see the muscles and tendons straining in Jesse’s shoulders.

Hanzo opened the door quietly and hurried over to his lover. He wrapped his arms tightly around Jesse’s chest and pressed his head between his shoulders. Jesse jumped in surprise and gasped softly. He tensed up more, his whole body going stiff before he relaxed slowly.

“Hey, darlin’, didn’t mean to wake ya,” Jesse murmured.

“You didn’t,” Hanzo reassured him as he rubbed his lover’s chest. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’s wrong, darlin’,” Jesse chuckled. “I’m fine.”

“Do not lie to me, Jesse McCree,” Hanzo said sternly. “You were shaking.”

“Darlin’,” Jesse warned. “Don’t….”

“Don’t push?” Hanzo asked before he gently forced Jesse to turn around. He cupped Jesse’s jaw in his hand, glaring up at the man giving him a dirty look. “When have you ever known me not to do as I pleased?”

“If I tell ya to back off, ya should,” Jesse growled. “Ain’t nothin’....”

“Jesse, when we the last time you removed your prosthetic?” Hanzo asked.

Jesse stopped midsentence and looked at his feet. His silence was more than enough of an answer. Hanzo sighed and gently lowered his hands to the clasp. Jesse looked away, setting his jaw as Hanzo gently started loosening the clasps and buckles holding the prosthetic in place. Jesse hissed as the needle-fine ends disconnected from his nerve endings. The limb felt heavy in Hanzo’s hands as he gently set it on the table. 

Jesse’s stump of an arm looked swollen, the heavy scar tissue seeming to twitch on its own as the nerve endings continued shooting signals to a limb that wasn’t there anymore. Jesse looked away, tears building behind his eyes. Hanzo gently touched the amputated arm, massaging his fingers into the muscle.

“Jesse, you do not have to be ashamed with me,” Hanzo said. “It was a nightmare, wasn’t it?”

“Hanzo,” Jesse growled.

“How many times have you woken up to comfort me?” Hanzo asked as he continued massaging Jesse’s limb. “How many times have you wrapped your arms around my chest, pulled me in close, and told me that it was all going to be okay?”

“Hanzo that’s….”

“Different?” Hanzo asked. “Why? Because I am having nightmares of almost killing my brother for the stupid honour of my dishonourable clan? Because I am not you, Jesse McCree?”

Jesse hung his head. “I didn’t….”

“I know,” Hanzo said as he cupped Jesse’s cheek. “I am not angry at you, Jesse.”

“I just...I don’t like you seeing me like this over a stupid nightmare,” Jesse whispered.

“It is not stupid, Jesse,” Hanzo soothed as he stepped back. “Come; we’ll get something warm and sit on the couch. You will tell me the nightmare that plagues you and I will keep you safe.”

“Remind me to kick Genji the next time I see him fer being a dirty-rotten liar,” Jesse chuckled.

“Lair?” Hanzo asked as he carried Jesse’s prothetic into the kitchen and put water in the kettle.

“Yah; said you didn’t have a romantic bone in your body,” Jesse smiled.

Hanzo chuckled in amusement as he let Jesse wrap his good arm around his waist and pull him in close to his chest. He ran his fingers over Jesse’s hairy arm, humming softly as he waited for the water to boil. Jesse’s mouth pressed against his neck, nuzzling through the length of gray-streaked black hair hanging around his ears. Hanzo sighed contently, relaxing against Jesse’s wide chest.

“Love these moments,” Jesse mumbled against his neck. “Just the two of us.”

“Cover your ears,” Hanzo said as he spotted steam starting to rise out of the kettle.

“I ain’t,” Jesse started to grumble as the kettle started whistling. “Fuck, that’s loud!”

“Told you,” Hanzo said as he turned the kettle off and pulled out two mugs.

He got the hot chocolate mix out of the cupboard while Jesse shuffled behind him. He dumped the mixture into the mugs and poured the hot water overtop. He added milk and stirred everything together, adding tiny marshmallows to Jesse’s mug. He handed Jesse his mug and headed into the living room where the couch was.

He patted his thigh and Jesse sat down on the floor to rest his head against Hanzo’s thigh. They sipped their hot chocolate in silence, enjoying the closeness. Hanzo ran his fingers through Jesse’s hair, helping him to relax further.

“So, what did you dream about?” Hanzo asked after they were almost finished their drinks.

“Oh, you know; stupid things,” Jesse shrugged a shoulder as he set his empty mug down on the coffee table. “Snakes crawlin’ all over me, that sorta shit.”

“Mmm,” Hanzo said as he continued carding his fingers through Jesse’s hair. “Go on.”

“Big snakes too, ya know? Pythons and what not,” he shuddered. “Big as your fucking arm too. So yah, just really, really scared the piss outta me.”

“Your phobia manifests even in your dreams,” Hanzo nodded his head.

He knew Jesse was lying. It was written into every pore of his body. He wasn’t meeting Hanzo’s gaze, more content to scratch at his chest and wiggle his stump of an arm than look at Hanzo. He was tapping his right foot against the ground, wiggling the toes with each thump. He was tense across the shoulders, too.

“Yah, funny that,” Jesse laughed nervously. 

He scratched at his chest and started rambling about the snakes in his dream. Hanzo stayed quiet, nodding his head slowly. His fingers continued running through Jesse’s hair, soothing him as he continued to tense up. Then, like a snapped spring, he buried his face in his hand and started sobbing.

“Ssh, I am not here to judge, Jesse,” Hanzo soothed.

“I lied to ya,” Jesse whimpered.

“I know,” Hanzo smiled. 

“And ya didn’t stop me?” Jesse demanded. “All that shit on the veranda about not lyin’ to ya and ya let me?!”

“Jesse,” Hanzo tutted and tapped his lover’s nose. “I know you are like a wild mustang. I can only push so far before you try to bite. I got you here, but I had to let you decide to trust me.”

“Darlin’,” Jesse looked up and smiled around his bloodshot eyes. “That’s the sweetest thing ya’ve said all night.”

“You would enjoy being compared to a wild horse,” Hanzo clucked his tongue before he gently ran his thumb over Jesse’s cheek. “Please, tell me what you really dreamed of.”

Jesse pressed his face into Hanzo’s hand and closed his eyes. “Ain’t so much a dream as a sensation,” he murmured softly. “I was fallin’ through darkness and somethin’ was howlin’ and screechin’ after me. This pain started in my chest and it felt like something was burning its way outta me. My skin started flaking away, spinning off into the darkness, and someone was laughing, only it wasn’t because they thought it was funny. They'd lost their God-damn mind and I was getting punished for it. Then I realized that it was me laughin’ and I started screaming and thrashing and….”

“You turned into Reaper,” Hanzo murmured softly.

Jesse nodded his head and started sobbing again. “I was so scared,” he whispered. “Fuck, I can still feel that burnin’ in my chest, like something’s going to explode outta me.”

Hanzo gently took Jesse’s face in his hands. “Jesse, you are not Gabriel Reyes,” he said sternly.

“There’s a lota similarities,” Jesse smiled sadly. “Can’t even name ‘em all. Fuck. I don’t want to be like him, Hanzo.”

“You will not follow him down that path,” Hanzo told him. “Even if I have to hold you back kicking and screaming, I will not allow you to become like that man.”

“So sweet of ya, Hanzo,” Jesse smiled before he hauled himself up onto the couch. “I got me my own personal dragon guardian.”

Hanzo clucked his tongue as he let himself be dragged up against Jesse’s hairy chest. “You imply that this is unexpected, cowboy,” he said. The nickname eased the bite of the remark.

“Hey, a man can’t get too comfortable around a dragon,” Jesse laughed. “Never know when they might bite.”

Hanzo rolled his eyes before turning and biting the soft flesh around Jesse’s pectoral. Jesse yelped and flailed his arms, staring at Hanzo in surprise. Hanzo wasted no time in lifting himself onto his lover and pushing him down onto the cushions, playfully biting him until he was nuzzling his face against Jesse’s scruffy beard. He draped himself over Jesse’s body, smirking at the rough laughs shaking through his lover.

“Apparently, the dragon is playful!” Jesse wheezed out as Hanzo kissed along his jaw. “God damn, Hanzo! Them teeth are sharp!”

Hanzo snapped his jaws playfully at Jesse’s nose before nuzzling him some more. “Do not be afraid to tell me what bothers you,” he said gently as he wrapped his arms around Jesse’s shoulders. “I am here to keep you safe.”

“I know,” Jesse sighed. “Just been on my own fer so long that I forget what trust feels like. I’ll do better.”

“Do what you feel comfortable doing,” Hanzo corrected with a gentle kiss against Jesse’s lips. “I will only push when I think your health is in jeopardy.”

“Okay,” Jesse murmured as he rolled onto his back. His good hand caressed Hanzo’s cheek. “I love you so much, Hanzo Shimada.”

“And I you, Jesse McCree,” Hanzo smiled.

“Could you say the words, please?” Jesse asked.

Hanzo blinked in confusion before he smiled. “I love you to the moon and back, Jesse McCree,” he said softly.

“And you just had to one up me, didn’t you?” Jesse pouted playfully.

“I have to charm the charmer if I want to survive,” Hanzo smirked before pressing a kiss to Jesse’s pouty lips. “Do you want to return to the bed?”

“Here’s fine,” Jesse shrugged. “Not too cold.”

“Mmm, then let me rephrase that; I am returning to bed,” Hanzo chuckled as he got up. “I happen to prefer mattresses to bodies.”

“Didn’t say that the other night,” Jesse waggled his eyebrows as he got to his feet. 

He glanced at his prosthetic arm before wiggling his stump at Hanzo. Hanzo gently took the amputated limb in his hand and kissed over the scar tissue. He rested his cheek on Jesse’s shoulder as they returned to the bedroom and crawled into bed.

Jesse tucked his head into Hanzo’s chest and was out cold within a few minutes. Hanzo stayed awake long enough to ensure that his lover was sleeping soundly before he closed his eyes.


End file.
